Is Pain Kickin’ Your Butt?

This information is taken from the webinar Is Pain Kickin’ Your Butt? With Cindy Klement, MS, CNS, MCHES.

Pain Is Expensive: Johns Hopkins University reported the annual cost of chronic pain is approximately $635 billion a year, which is more than the yearly costs for cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Pain Is Prevalent: Prevalence estimates for pain conditions were 10 percent for moderate pain, 11 percent for severe pain, 33 percent for joint pain, 25 percent for arthritis, and 12 percent for functional disability. The American Academy of Pain Medicine tells us that there are over 100 million adults in the United States that are suffering from chronic pain – pain that persists despite the fact that the injury has healed. This doesn’t account for acute pain – pain that comes on suddenly (usually a sharp pain when you’ve injured yourself).

Pain Impacts Productivity: Adults with pain reported missing more days from work than people without pain. Pain negatively impacted three components of productivity: work days missed, number of annual hours worked and hourly wages.

Pain Medication is on The Rise: Americans are suffering from more pain than ever. The use of Vicodin has grown dramatically from 112 million doses prescribed in 2006, to 131 million doses in the U.S. today. The United States makes up only 4.6 percent of the world’s population, but consumes 80 percent of its opioids — and 99 percent of the world’s hydrocodone.

Inflammation is a natural response to injury. When it becomes chronic or systemic the process becomes a disease. Medications are often prescribed to suppress symptoms.

An Anti-Inflammatory lifestyle is critical if one wants to win the war on inflammation. Here are some of the parts of an anti-inflammatory lifestyle:

Doctor Andrew Weil talks about The Anti-Inflammatory Diet which limits sweets and meats and focuses on plant foods. Herbs and spices are part of the plant food. One example of anti-inflammatory spice is curcumin.

Thousands of published studies on curcumin extract demonstrate or suggest its broad and significant medical effects, including anti-inflammatory properties.

Traditional Ayurvedic Medicine has safely used curcumin for over 5,000 years to support a healthy inflammatory response. Curcumin is obtained from the rhizomes of the yellow curry spice turmeric (Curcuma longa).